Anastasios Balkos (, 1916 – 30 October 1995) was a

Greek Army The Hellenic Army (, sometimes abbreviated as ΕΣ), formed in 1828, is the land force of Greece. The term '' Hellenic'' is the endogenous synonym for ''Greek''. The Hellenic Army is the largest of the three branches of the Hellenic Armed F ...

lieutenant general and conservative politician, who served as Greece's

Minister of Public Order The Ministry of Citizen Protection () is the government department responsible for Greece's public security services, i.e. the Hellenic Police, the Hellenic Fire Service, Hellenic (Corrections) Prison System, the Agrarian Police and the Gener ...

and as an intelligence officer in the Greek secret services.

Biography

Anastasios Balkos was born in

Preveza Preveza (, ) is a city in the region of Epirus (region), Epirus, northwestern Greece, located on the northern peninsula of the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf. It is the capital of the Preveza (regional unit), regional unit of Preveza, which is the s ...

in 1916. He graduated from the

Hellenic Military Academy The Hellenic Army Academy (, ΣΣΕ), commonly known as the Evelpidon, is a military academy. It is the Officer cadet school of the Greek Army and the oldest third-level educational institution in Greece. It was founded in 1828 in Nafplio by Io ...

and later attended various Greek and international military schools, including the

United States Army Command and General Staff College The United States Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC or, obsolete, USACGSC) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, is a graduate school for United States Army and sister service officers, interagency representatives, and international military ...

Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Fort Leavenworth () is a United States Army installation located in Leavenworth County, Kansas, in the city of Leavenworth, Kansas, Leavenworth. Built in 1827, it is the second oldest active United States Army post west of Washington, D.C., an ...

. He fought in the

Greco-Italian War The Greco-Italian War (), also called the Italo-Greek War, Italian campaign in Greece, Italian invasion of Greece, and War of '40 in Greece, took place between Italy and Greece from 28 October 1940 to 23 April 1941. This conflict began the Balk ...

in 1940–41, in the Greek Resistance with

EDES The National Republican Greek League (, ''Ethnikós Dimokratikós Ellinikós Sýndesmos'' (EDES)) was a major anti-Nazi resistance group formed during the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II. The largest of the non-communist resistanc ...

in 1941–44, and in the

Greek Civil War The Greek Civil War () took place from 1946 to 1949. The conflict, which erupted shortly after the end of World War II, consisted of a Communism, Communist-led uprising against the established government of the Kingdom of Greece. The rebels decl ...

on the side of the Greek government against the communists. In the postwar years, under the conservative governments of Marshal

Alexander Papagos Alexandros Papagos (; 9 December 1883 – 4 October 1955) was a Greek military officer who led the Hellenic Army in World War II and the later stages of the subsequent Greek Civil War. The only Greek army career officer to rise to the rank of Fie ...

and

Constantine Karamanlis Konstantinos G. Karamanlis (, ; 8 March 1907 – 23 April 1998) was a Greek statesman who was the four-time Prime Minister of Greece and two-term president of the Third Hellenic Republic. A towering figure of Greek politics, his political caree ...

(1952–63), Balkos served in the Counterespionage and Security Branch of the Greek Central Intelligence Service (KYP), which at the time had a bad reputation, due to its repression of the Greek Left in the virulently anti-communist climate following the Civil War. After the restoration of democracy in 1974, Balkos established friendly relations with Karamanlis and with Defense Minister

Evangelos Averoff Evangelos Averoff-Tossizza (Greek: Ευάγγελος Αβέρωφ Τοσίτσας) (Trikala, 17 April 1910 – Athens, 2 January 1990) was a Greek politician, leader of the New Democracy party (1981–1984), member of parliament, and author. ...

, who had much influence among the Greek "hard Right". In January 1975, Balkos was appointed General Secretary of the Ministry of Public Order. From 1977 until 1989, Balkos was a Member of Parliament for

New Democracy New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a type of democracy in Marxism, based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path that w ...

, representing Preveza Prefecture, and also served as Minister of Public Order from November 1977 until May 1980. In October 1981, he attacked the newly elected socialist Prime Minister

Andreas Papandreou Andreas Georgiou Papandreou (, ; 5 February 1919 – 23 June 1996) was a Greek academic and economist who founded the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) and served three terms as Prime minister of Greece, prime minister of Third Hellenic Repu ...

, because he appointed Yannis Skoularikis as Minister of Public Order; Skoularikis was a member of the communist-sponsored National Liberation Front (EAM) during the Nazi occupation and Balkos feared he would purge the security forces from conservatives in order to settle old scores. He died in 1995, aged 79.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Balkos, Anastasios 1916 births 1995 deaths Greek military personnel of World War II Greek MPs 1977–1981 Greek MPs 1981–1985 Greek MPs 1985–1989 Hellenic Army lieutenant generals Ministers of public order of Greece National Republican Greek League members New Democracy (Greece) politicians People from Preveza People of the Greek Civil War National Intelligence Service (Greece)